66 Waking Up to Reality

Plop!

Epsilon was finally asleep on Luna's huge bed. It took a while to calm her down. Astrid sighed in relief. She was dead tired from getting Epsilon to stop enslaving people. She watched as Lyria and Epsilon lay side by side like sardines in a can. Now, she just had to find Luna and then she could finally rest!

Astrid searched the house. Luna was gone. She probably went out to confess to Tank.

"This is bad..." Astrid said to herself. She had no choice but to contact Tank and ask for clues on Luna's whereabouts. Just as she was about to dial Tank's number, the doorbell rang. Astrid opened the front door.

"Yo," Tank waved. He was carrying a sleeping Luna on his back.

"Tank! How did you find this place?" Astrid was surprised.

"Thankfully Luna had an ID on her." He held up the ID he used to locate the address.

Astrid sighed in relief. "Thank goodness. Luna suddenly left the house while I was busy taking care of Epsilon. I had no idea where she went off to. She wanted to find you."

Tank laughed. "Sounds like you had a tough time."

"You can drop Luna off on the couch. Lyria and Epsilon are occupying the bed right now."

"Mind if I hang out here until daybreak? Outside is pretty chilly. I live in the other city and there are no trains running at this ungodly hour."

"I'm sure Luna wouldn't mind. Would you like something hot like coffee?"

"Thanks."

Astrid and Tank sat down at the living room and had coffee together. Luna was fast asleep on the couch.

"I assume Frisk told you about our plans?" Astrid asked before she took a sip of her coffee.

Tank nodded. "He mentioned it. I'm up for it. I have nothing here anyway. I might as well try and get back the home I had in that world."

Astrid smiled. Another person on board. "That's great then. Glad to have you with us, Tank."

"Frisk and I were discussing an idea. What if we explicitly put up a website calling out to everyone who used to be in Aries? Like an online forum or something. I'm sure there are other players out there looking to reunite with their friends. It might be easier to recruit people that way."

"That's a good idea."

Gathering the community back together through a forum. It might just work. Although there is a risk of the hackers catching on to their activities, they should be fine if they make it seem like the work of someone who just wanted to reconnect with lost friends.

"If you like it, Frisk and I can get it up and running as soon as we can."

"Thanks. That should help us a lot."

"Alright. We'll work on it then. Frisk and I will contact you once it's up."

They continued to chat about other matters until they started to feel overtaken by slumber. By five in the morning, both Astrid and Tank were already asleep in the living room.

***

The first one who woke up the next day was Lyria, who struggled to get out of bed with a headache. She made her way to the kitchen to look for a glass of water. As she did, she noticed the unexpected visitor asleep on the couch.

Judging by how Astrid and Luna were also asleep in the living room, something definitely happened the night before.

Lyria gently woke Luna up to ask where she kept the glasses. Luna's eyes slowly opened as she sleepily said location in a slightly muffled voice. It wasn't long before the house owner finally took note of her surroundings.

"Wait, why is Tank here!?" she almost screamed but was stopped by Lyria in time.

"I don't know. I was the first one who fell asleep," replied Lyria. "Astrid would probably know."

Luna did not hesitate to wake her sleeping friend up. "Astrid! Astrid! Wake up, woman!"

"Huh?" Astrid sleepily opened her eyes.

"What happened last night?" Luna demanded to know and shook Astrid. "Why is Tank in my living room?"

Astrid replied calmly as she was being shaken, "You left the house while I was trying to get Epsilon back into the house. Then Tank brought you home."

"What!?" Luna exclaimed. "What was I doing in between that?"

"How am I supposed to know? I wasn't there."

Luna lowered her voice. "Did Tank say anything about me? I hope I didn't say anything weird."

"He didn't mention anything about what you did last night." Astrid then lowered her voice, "You did, however, tell me that you wanted to confess to him before you suddenly left the house."

Luna gave a horrified look. "Don't tell me I... Did I really..."

"There's only one way to find out." Astrid turned her head towards Tank's direction. The Knights Alliance guildmaster was still fast asleep on his seat.

"I'm not ready to find out!" Luna was about to run away and hide when Epsilon walked into the room.

"Morning people," Epsilon greeted with a yawn. "I had a dream last night about how I became a wealthy empress with many slaves. It felt great."

Astrid gave an awkward smile. "I'm sure it was."

Epsilon looked out the window where the jazz club was in full view. "Woah. Looks like a tornado hit the place. They must've had a wild party last night."

"You did that, Epsi." Astrid placed her palm over her face.

"Oh. Woops."

Tank started to wake up because of the voices around him. Luna flinched when she noticed.

"Morning, Tank," Lyria greeted with a smile.

"Morning. Sorry for crashing your sleepover," he replied as he sat up straight. When he saw Luna, he smiled a little awkwardly. "I hope you're feeling better."

I knew it! I definitely said something weird to him last night! How am I supposed to face him from now on? Luna's head was in panic mode.

"Thanks for bringing me back here safely. Sorry about last night," Luna said nervously.

"No problem. Thanks for letting me stay over. I should be getting back home."

"You're welcome to stay for breakfast."

"We have noodles," Epsilon said while already slurping on a bowl of Oodle Noodles.

"Thanks for the offer, but I don't want to disturb your sleepover. I'm also itching to get started on the forum." He got up from his seat. "Enjoy your morning! And try not to drink too much booze."

As soon as he left the house, Luna collapsed face-down on the couch. "What have I done?"

"There, there, Luna. Things will probably be fine," Astrid comforted her friend.

"What would you do if you suddenly confessed to Garth while drunk?"

"I'd become a shut-in for a while until I get over the shame," the guildmaster answered honestly.

Luna covered her head with a pillow. "I'm probably going to get rejected."

"If you get rejected, then move on," said Epsilon bluntly.

"If Tank can't see how special you are at the moment, remember that it doesn't make you any less worthy of anything. That's his problem if he misses out on having a great person like you as his girlfriend," Lyria followed.

Astrid looked at the girls beside her. "Uhh... what they said."

Luna peeked from under the pillow. "Thanks girls."

"So, shall we have breakfast?" Lyria took out her white lacey apron and started putting it on.

"Yeah!" Luna and Astrid said enthusiastically.

"I already am," replied Epsilon while still eating noodles.